Know an awesome place to work? Nominate it for San Diego's 2026 Top Workplaces

Want to see how your workplace stacks up to other businesses in the San Diego area of similar size? Now’s your chance.

The 14th edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune Top Workplaces survey provides an effective way for companies, employees and job seekers to gain valuable insight into the top organizations in the county.

The annual survey consists of 26 statements that employees respond to - such as, "I feel genuinely appreciated at this company” - and then ranks the replies on a scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree."

The Union-Tribune’s research partner, a Pennsylvania-based employee experience platform called Energage, conducts and compiles the results.

The survey takes only about five minutes to complete. Responses remain anonymous to protect employee confidentiality and give companies unfiltered feedback. Energage shares the results with each organization privately.

“It’s really a good cross-section of topics that affect people’s relationship to their job,” said Energage spokesman Bob Helbig. “The best companies, they look at that data and they compare year-to-year what went up and what went down.”

There is no cost for organizations to take part in Top Workplaces and anybody can submit nominations - employees, management and even people who don’t work at a given organization.

Companies, private businesses, nonprofits, government agencies and even schools are eligible.

List: The best companies to work for in San Diego County ranked

“Sometimes new companies are nervous about doing this,” Helbig said, but shouldn’t be. “I would say you have to establish a baseline to know where you’re at. Maybe you think things are great but they’re not. Maybe you think things are lousy and they’re not. But you’ve got to gather the data, trust the data and make reliable decisions on the data.”

Participating organizations must be located in San Diego County and employ at least 50 people. Standout companies will be honored in November and highlighted in a special Sunday section of the Union-Tribune.

Companies are broken down by size, from small (50 to 149 total employees), midsize (150 to 499 total employees) and large (500 or more total employees).

To submit a nomination, all it takes is going to sandiegouniontribune.com/nominate or calling (619) 780-3999. The deadline is June 19.

In last year’s awards, nearly 4,000 organizations in San Diego County were invited to survey their employees. Based on the feedback obtained by the surveys, 105 organizations earned recognition as Top Workplaces.

Carolina Bravo-Karimi, managing partner of the San Diego-based Wilson Turner Kosmo law firm, was recognized for leadership in the 2025 Top Workplaces awards.

Her recommendation for bosses who may be on the fence about participating?

“I think sometimes CEOs are worried about criticism,” she said. “We shouldn’t be worried about criticism or identifying gaps in our workplaces. But I think not doing the survey will prevent you from actually seeing your successes as well, and making sure the things your employees appreciate are things you continue to do. Sometimes the things that you’re doing well become so much more evident thanks to the survey.”

Since results are strictly shared in-house, Helbig said organizations should view Top Workplaces as a no-lose proposition.

“The goal is to highlight companies that are doing well, it’s not to point a finger at companies that are facing some challenges and need to make some improvements,” Helbig said. “Our stated mission as a company is to make the world a better place to work together. We want to help companies get on the list of the best places to work.”

Energage surveyed more than 2 million employees at more than 8,000 organizations in the past year. Top Workplaces media clients cover 70 markets, including the Boston Globe, the Dallas Morning News and the Denver Post.

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